■TECHNOLOGY
TECRO offers symposiums
The Investment and Trade Office of the Taipei Economic and Cultural and Representative Office (TECRO) said yesterday it would hold two free symposiums on investment and technology related topics in the next two months. The symposiums will be arranged together with several technology associations from the US east coast, TECRO said. The first symposium will be held on Aug. 8 and the second on Sept. 5 at TECRO’s office in New York. Lecturers will include prominent figures in the fields of investment and technology. Four Taiwanese professors will also give lectures. The speakers will discuss the effect of the subprime crisis, conditions on Wall Street and investment strategies to weather the global economic slump, TECRO said in a statement.
■AVIATION
Thai carrier suspends flights
Thailand’s low budget airline One-Two-Go announced yesterday it was suspending its operations for eight weeks, to allow time for financial restructuring. Services will stop from Tuesday until Sept. 15 as the impact of high fuel prices hits the no-frills carrier. “One-Two-Go have been affected by fierce price competition, other surcharges and continued high fuel prices and local political turmoil,” the company statement said. “The airline executive must be prudent and map out a new strategy focusing on its customers,” it said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Downturn gets worse
The economic downturn is worse than previously thought and there is no extra money available for public spending, Finance Minister Alistair Darling said in an interview published yesterday. Darling also told the Times newspaper that taxpayers were at the limit of what they were willing to pay, a day after official data showed a record deficit in public finances and reports that the government might bend its budget rules. “At Christmas most people remained hopeful there would be an improvement by the autumn,” Darling said.
■TOYS
Mattel wins court case
The world’s largest toy maker, Mattel, on Friday won a court case against competitor MGA, maker of the Bratz dolls that have drawn customers away from its classic Barbie dolls. A 10-member federal jury in Riverside, California, ruled that the design for the Bratz, with their modern, urban look and cartoonish large heads and eyes, was conceived by designer Carter Bryant while he was working under contract at Mattel. It found MGA chief executive Isaac Larian interfered with Bryant’s contractual duties, taking Mattel property for MGA’s use. In the next stage of the case, the jury will determine if the dolls themselves infringe on the designs owned by Mattel and award any damages.
■AGRICULTURE
China must increase crops
China, the world’s biggest grower and consumer of grains, must boost crop yields by at least 1 percent a year to ensure the country has enough food to feed its 1.3 billion people, the Chinese Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai (孫政才) said. The country will accelerate introduction of high-yield rice and genetically modified crops, protect farmland and raise rural incomes to retain farming interest, Sun said in a statement on the central government’s Web site on Friday. China’s growing incomes and population are increasing food demand even as more agricultural workers seek higher-paying jobs in cities.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the